Do Good Fences Make Holy Neighbors? The Torah's enjoins us to "be holy" in the Parsha that deals primarily with interpersonal relationships, indicating that the test of holiness lies not in the halls of study and prayer, or secluded in nature, separate from civilization, but rather in the societies we create and the relationships we build. Creating a society that protects both the individual's rights as well as his sense of responsibility to others, is a balance that the Talmud spends lots of time and energy negotiating. In the first Mishnah of Tractate Baba Batra, the Talmud describes neighbors who share the use of a courtyard and decide to split their partnership and erect a wall. MISHNA: Partners who wished to make a partition [meḥitza] in a jointly owned courtyard build the wall for the partition in the middle of the courtyard. What is this wall fashioned from? In a place where it is customary to build such a wall with non-chiseled stone [gevil], or chiseled stone [gazit], or small bricks [kefisin], or large bricks [leveinim], they must build the wall with that material. Everything is in accordance with the regional custom… Therefore, if the wall later falls, the space where the wall stood and the stones belong to both of them, to be divided equally. Almost two thousand years, before Lewis Samuel Warren and Louis Brandies coined the term "right to privacy", in the Halachilk conclusion of the Talmudic discussion the Torah recognizes the right to privacy, classifying "damage through sight" as damage, and therefore each neighbor can compel the other to participate in allocating the space and the materials for building a wall that will protect their privacy. But walls can also create moral challenges, allowing the homeowner to separate himself from the pain of others. Indeed, later in the Tractate, when the Mishnah states that neighbors living in the same courtyard may compel each other to pay for a gatehouse, the Talmud asks: Is this to say that making a gatehouse is beneficial? But wasn't there that pious man, with whom the prophet Elijah was accustomed to speak, who built a gatehouse, and after-ward Elijah did not speak with him again? The objection to the building of a gatehouse is that the guard who mans it prevents the poor from entering and asking for charity. The Talmud suggests a solution that balances the right of the members of the courtyard to protect their privacy, while also encouraging their moral and ethical obligation not to sever themselves from the pain of others: The Gemara answers: This is not difficult: This, the case presented in the Mishna, is referring to a gatehouse built on the inside of the courtyard, in which case the poor can at least reach the courtyard's entrance and be heard inside the courtyard; that, the story of the pious man and Elijah, involves a gatehouse that was built on the outside of the courtyard, completely blocking the poor's access to the courtyard's entrance. Returning to the first Mishah, to the story of the neighbors who build a wall dissolving their "partnership", upon careful analysis we can see that the Mishnah may be signaling a subtle but important message about neighbors. The entire Mishnah instructs on the process of resolving the partnership. Yet, the conclusion of the Mishnah, "Therefore, if the wall later falls, the space where the wall stood and the stones belong to both of them, to be divided equally", implies that they indeed remain partners! They share ownership of the bricks and of the place of the wall. The Mishnah signals to us that we can choose to minimize the partnership with our neighbor, but we cannot eliminate it. We live together, and we therefore impact each other. This Mishnah sets the tone for the entire Tractate and for our understanding of relationships within society. Yes, we may and should protect our own rights, space, and privacy, yet we must also remember that we are in a partnership with the people around us. We are interconnected and interdependent with the broader community.
ב"ה